Drilling into the DEA’s pain pill database

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For the first time, a database maintained by the Drug Enforcement Administration that tracks the path of every single pain pill sold in the United States — by manufacturers and distributors to pharmacies in every town and city — has been made public.

The Washington Post sifted through nearly 380 million transactions from 2006 through 2012 that are detailed in the DEA’s database and analyzed shipments of oxycodone and hydrocodone pills, which account for three-quarters of the total opioid pill shipments to pharmacies. The Post is making this data available at the county and state levels in order to help the public understand the impact of years of prescription pill shipments on their communities.

These records provide an unprecedented look at the surge of legal pain pills that fueled the prescription opioid epidemic, which resulted in nearly 100,000 deaths during the seven-year time frame ending in 2012.

A county-level analysis of the cumulative data shows where the most oxycodone and hydrocodone pills were distributed across the country over that time: more than 76 billion in all.

Number of pills distributed per person, per year

Average yearly total, by county, 2006 through 2012

Use two fingers to pan around the map.Pinch to zoom.

Tap a district to see details

The Post gained access to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System, known as ARCOS, as the result of a court order. The Post and HD Media, which publishes the Charleston Gazette-Mail in West Virginia, waged a year-long legal battle for access to the database, which the government and the drug industry had sought to keep secret.

The version of the database published by The Post allows readers to learn how much hydrocodone and oxycodone went to individual states and counties, and which companies and distributors were responsible.

Find the data for where you live

Visit this page on a desktop computer to download the data.

Visit this page on a desktop computer to download the data.

Visit this page on a desktop computer to download the data.

The Post believes this is a critically important set of data, which is why we are making it public and accessible to readers and other journalists. We think there are hundreds of stories within this data set and need your help to understand what it means to you and your community. Want to use this data or our findings in your own work? Click here to find out how.

There were no prescription pain pill transactions for this county in the data.

The Post analysis shows that the volumes of the pills handled by the companies climbed as the epidemic surged, increasing 51 percent from 8.4 billion in 2006 to 12.6 billion in 2012. Yearly county-level maps show how the influx of pills spread.

Just six companies distributed 75 percent of the pills — oxycodone and hydrocodone — during this period: McKesson Corp., Walgreens, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, CVS and Walmart, according to an analysis of the database by The Washington Post.

Three companies manufactured about 88 percent of the opioids: SpecGx, a subsidiary of Mallinckrodt; Actavis Pharma; and Par Pharmaceutical, a subsidiary of Endo Pharmaceuticals.

Top pill manufacturers, 2006 through 2012

Click on a column to sort the table.

Labeler

Percent of market

SpecGx

29 billion pills

37.7%

Actavis Pharma

26 billion pills

34.5%

Par Pharmaceutical

12 billion pills

15.7%

Purdue Pharma

2.5 billion pills

3.3%

Amneal Pharmaceuticals

2.3 billion pills

2.9%

Teva Pharmaceuticals USA

690 million pills

0.9%

KVK Tech

580 million pills

0.8%

West-Ward Pharmaceuticals

380 million pills

0.5%

Kaiser Foundation Hospitals

370 million pills

0.5%

Endo Pharmaceuticals

300 million pills

0.4%

Ethex Corporation

290 million pills

0.4%

AbbVie Inc.

250 million pills

0.3%

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Inc.

240 million pills

0.3%

UCB, Inc.

180 million pills

0.2%

Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

140 million pills

0.2%

Cardinal Health

120 million pills

0.2%

Dispensing Solutions Inc.

95 million pills

0.1%

Golden State Medical Supply, Inc.

85 million pills

0.1%

Aphena Pharma Solutions - Tennessee, LLC

74 million pills

0.1%

McKesson Corp.

65 million pills

0.1%

Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

55 million pills

0.1%

Forest Laboratories, Inc.

47 million pills

0.1%

Bryant Ranch Prepack

37 million pills

0.1%

Pfizer Laboratories Div Pfizer Inc

31 million pills

0.0%

A-S Medication Solutions

28 million pills

0.0%

Comparing county-level maps of opioid overdose deaths and pill shipments reveal a virtual opioid belt of more than 90 counties stretching southwest from Webster County, W.Va., through southern Virginia and ending in Monroe County, Ky. This swath includes 18 of the top 20 counties ranked by per-capita prescription opioid deaths nationwide and 12 of the top 20 counties for opioid pills distributed per capita.

The Washington Post analyzed data from the Drug Enforcement Administration's Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System, known as ARCOS, from 2006 to 2012.

Data analyzed includes only shipments from sales of oxycodone and hydrocodone pills to retail pharmacies, chain pharmacies and practitioners. The entire database tracks a dozen different opioids, including oxycodone and hydrocodone, which make up three-quarters of the total pill shipments to pharmacies.

A cache of previously undisclosed documents and other records reveal officials from some of the nation’s largest drug manufacturers and distributors failed to heed warnings as pain pills flooded the country.